So you want to work on your family history and you're looking for a checklist of what exactly to do to find someone - including where to search and what to look for, step by step by step - check check check. Right?Well, truth be told genealogy isn't an exact science. There are different documents in different places, some have been lost, some deliberately destroyed, others accidentally destroyed, others haven't bee made public, names changed, nicknames got used instead of real names, people lied on documents, places changed, governments changed, languages changed....you get the picture.
Every family tree is different and every genealogist has a different focus and a different set of problems because you're searching for INDIVIDUALS. And there have been about 107,000,000,000 (One hundred seven trillion) individuals with different life stories and migrations and countries and parents and histories and careers and documentations lifespans across the planet.
So your checklist?
Other than some general research guidelines...it doesn't really exist.
HOWEVER - I could break Genealogy down into three areas of knowledge:
- Sources of info
- Organization & Documentation
- How to interpret info
Once you get organization down you'll have that forever, don't need to keep learning it. That's pretty simple.
How to interpret info is fairly standard with variations depending on areas and time periods and once you got that down you're pretty on top of things.
The last is sources of info. That's ongoing depending on who you're researching when and where (i.e. you aren't going to look in the Beverly Massachusetts courthouse for records for Multnomah County Oregon) and you'll have the help of the Holy Ghost in many instances on this one. But there are some pretty standard sources that don't require extensive information down once you got the basics down. This doesn't have to be overwhelming!
If I was going to write a genealogy checklist for a beginner it would be this:
1) Learn the basics (This website is a good place to start)
2) Start with yourself
3) Focus on one family or individual at a time (Take your time!)
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| All in a days work....or millenia |
4) Go after the low hanging fruit
5) Keep learning
6) Take your time and HAVE FUN!
If you're not having fun you're doing it wrong. You will be much more successful if you have the spirit and that's much easier if you're having fun. A little bit here, a little bit there. Rome wasn't built in a day. Trees don't grow over-night.
My advice though? Pray for help from the Lord and seek His guidance in doing this work and I testify you will be blessed and find the help you need through Him and will come to understand this work much faster.
